In the manufacture of miniaturized devices there exists a desire to modify an object by removing material from the object or by depositing material on the object.
Conventional systems used for modifying the object include a microscope for inspecting the object to monitor a process of the modification. An example of such conventional system is an electron microscope, in which an electron beam generated by the electron microscope is used for inspecting the object and also for activating a processing gas modifying the object. Another example of a conventional processing system includes an electron microscope to generate an electron beam and an ion beam column to generate an ion beam, where the electron beam and the ion beam can be directed to a same location of an object to be modified. Here, the ion beam can be used to modify the object, and the electron beam can be used to monitor the progress of such sample modification. A process gas can be supplied to the object to modify the object by an interaction with the process gas which is activated by the electron beam and/or the ion beam.
The conventional system using a particle beam, such as an electron beam or an ion beam, for modification of the object has an advantage in that the processing of the object can be performed with a relatively high accuracy. A disadvantage of such system is that the modification of the object can be slow and that a high processing time can be involved if a larger amounts of materials are to be removed from or deposited on the object.
Other known processing systems use a laser beam to remove material from an object. The removal rate, i.e. an amount of material removed per unit time, of the laser system is typically greater than that of a charged particle beam system. However, the accuracy of the modification of the object employing the laser system is typically much lower than the accuracy achievable with a particle beam system.